What are some of the reasons that explain why people choose stay at home jobs? In some cases it could be due to the lack of other employment opportunities. This can especially be so in rural areas, or where social customs and norms constrain or encourage women to focus on stay at home jobs and family as their primary role. In such cases, stay at home jobs for pay or profit is an acceptable alternative to gainful employment outside the home. For example, in Iran some women do stay at home jobs for pay in order to save money for their retirement, often in a secretive fashion (Aghajanian, in press). In Taiwan, married women can earn income in the "satellite factory system" and "frontroom factories" (stay at home jobs). The satellite factory system concept casts light on a hierarchical subcontracting system of manufacturing composed of many small-scale, family-centered, export-oriented factories.

The majority of these factories are located either in urban residential neighborhoods, at urban-rural conjunctions, or in the front yards of peasants. Within the factories, as mothers polish, assemble, pack, and package, their children play. These factories also contract work to stay at home jobs who have converted their living rooms for factory production. In some areas there are government schemes to help individuals or families start micro-businesses. These businesses are often stay at home jobs. Choosing to participate in this type of stay at home jobs might provide for a better standard of living, perhaps even an eventual route from poverty, welfare, or social assistance dependency. Other reasons for stay at home jobs include:

Stay at home jobs is also where many economically successful businesses begin. For example, Julie Sautter launched her $10 million a year Curves business from her home in California while raising two children under 5 years of age. In the United States the majority of people with stay at home jobs are self-employed, numbering over 5 million business owners in the early 1990s with over 2 million of these owners women. People begin stay at home jobs as a result of entrepreneurial motives, un- or underemployment, and lack of career advancement.